The pace of discovery in A&A is truly breathtaking. We are in the midst of an exhilarating era of exploration of the cosmos. From the discovery of quasars, the cosmic microwave background radiation, then pulsars and black holes in the 1960's and 1970's, through the first probes of the birth of stars in the 1980's, we come in the late 1990's to the discovery of other planetary systems, detection of galaxies in an early epoch when the universe was only a tenth its present age, evidence for a preponderance of ``dark matter'' dominating the evolution of the universe, and possible acceleration figuring into the rate of expansion. This unprecedented golden age feeds on superb new technologies for telescopes, instrumentation, and computers. Multiwavelength observations have become the order of the day, with observatories in space and on the ground complementing one another to gather signals right across the electromagnetic spectrum. Theoretical modeling and computer simulations underpin the ultimate understanding of the observations and spur the quest for ever more penetrating data. Our vision of the cosmos, the universe beyond the Earth which is the realm of A&A, is undergoing nothing less than a revolution. This has a tremendous appeal to the professionals involved, and perhaps uniquely among the sciences the excitement is shared readily with students and the public.
As described in § 2.1, investment in A&A continues to quicken around the world, including a planned $230M in Canada. Already, over the past ten years Canada has helped to build the two Gemini telescopes which will give us access beginning this year to the front ranks of optical and infrared astronomy. These telescopes are optimized to play an important role in understanding star formation. Netterfield is flying long-duration balloon experiments to study the microstructure of the cosmic microwave background. Following the LRPP recommendations, Canada will next participate in the world observatory called ALMA (Atacama Large Millimetre Array) being constructed in Chile, offering a new window on star forming clouds in the Milky Way and dust enshrouded young galaxies. The CSA has made a major commitment to the NGST, optimized for high resolution work in the near infrared. Exciting new initiatives are the Planck/FIRST mission (precision cm to far-infrared survey capability from space), the SKA (mammoth cm-wave array with a collecting area of one square kilometre), and the VLOT (optical telescope with diameter 100 m).
Access to the national resources available for Canadians and to international opportunities like the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is allocated on the basis of merit of proposed observational projects making it essential to attract faculty of the highest calibre, something that DA alone in Canada can consistently accomplish.
In the 1980's, DA built a new group in cosmology (Dyer, Carlberg, Yee, Lilly, in order of hiring). The success in hiring can be attributed to existing strengths in DA and CITA, plus the outstanding facilities Canada had in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). A search nearing completion will consolidate the strength of this group.